Heal My Wounds
by Vera274
Summary: Takes place after Op: TREATY. Nigel has a talk with both Rachel and Chad, to find out the truth. One shot. 1x362 and 1xChad


The treaty was over.

Nigel walked home after a long and tiring day. Not because of his team that convinced him to secretly steal pizza (and avoid the owner of the ship), but because of the event that shocked him so much.

_I can't believe it… He was one of us after all… But why did he have to hurt me so much before he could tell me?_ he thought, lost in thought. Momentarily, he could think of only one person, and this person was both a friend and a traitor to him.

_I hate you, Chad, _he snarled at himself. _I hate you. I thought I was your friend. I thought I was… special to you._

Of course he wasn't. He had been, like everyone else, Chad's pawn. His heart was cold, as hard as stone. It wasn't him to care about others. He was an arrogant, stupid teenager.

While the bald boy continued to walk through the empty halls of the Moonbase, he continually looked in front of himself. The silence cut right through him – it fitted the situation. The silence was chilly and cold; it felt just like the moment when Nigel discovered Chad had betrayed him.

Suddenly, he heard the silence being broken through, right behind him. He could guess who it was, and he immediately felt happy when he realized that. But not happy enough to stay with her.

'I'm going home, Rachel,' he said calmly. He didn't stop walking.

Neither did she. 'I know how you're feeling,' she quietly said.

'No, you don't.' The calmness in his voice now sounded surprisingly sharp. She didn't seem to notice.

'Do you think you're the only one he hurt? He betrayed us all, not only you.' She sounded as sharp as him; apparently, she had noticed.

'You don't get it.' Nigel stopped walking when he felt her hand on his shoulder.

'No, I don't,' she softly replied, her voice as velvet as always. 'I don't get a thing. But I'm trying to understand – for you.'

'I don't need compassion,' he snarled her in the face. The look in his eyes hit her stone-hard; his pupils were filled with fire. 'There's nothing to understand, 362 – nothing. He was good, then evil, then good again. That's it, end of story.'

'But not for you,' she concluded and folded her arms over each other.

'You know nothing about me.' Nigel looked down. I hated to act to her like this. But he couldn't help it; the frustration of the entire day had overwhelmed him completely. He had been so close to defeating his greatest enemy – that had once been his best friend. He could've been just a second earlier, and he would've watched a hurt Chad fall off the platform. But that didn't happen… I shouldn't have doubted so much, he growled to himself. Nothing stopped me from shooting him in the face… Or did it?

Rachel looked at him strictly. 'As your Supreme Leader, I order you not to speak to me in that tone.'

Nigel rolled his eyes. 'Anything else?'

'I want to talk to you.'

'I don't. See you tomorrow.' Nigel shoved her hand off his shoulder and turned away to continue walking. But her voice sounded so sad that he didn't have the heart to do that.

'Don't you trust me, Nigel?'

He aimed his eyes for her again. She was looking at her feet to hide her face, and her hands hung down so loosely and lost that it seemed her arms didn't belong to her body.

He sighed. 'It's not that, Rachel… I'm just tired of this day. I'm tired and I need some rest.'

She took his example, but her sigh was twice as deep as his. 'Avoiding your problems really won't solve them, Numbuh 1.'

He noticed she was calling him by his code number now. 'I won't avoid them… forever. I just don't wanna think about it right now.'

Rachel looked up at him so that he could see her roll her eyes. 'As if I don't know there is not a moment you're not thinking about Chad.'

A tremble crossed his back at hearing that name. 'Don't say that.'

'Nigel, you need help. It can be read in your eyes that you can't get away from him.'

'Yes, I can,' he protested annoyed.

'No, you can't. Not on your own.'

'I don't need your help!' He cried it out so loudly he nearly formed a shout. That was the key to make her give up.

She stared at him – her eyes pierced right into his in spite of the glass of his sunglasses – and had her mouth closed, even though it looked like she was about to say something. Her hands again hung as deadly beside her thigh.

After a silence for hours, she spoke.

'… Okay then.' Her voice sounded horribly hurt. He couldn't help but feel sorry. She turned away from him and slowly moved her feet to walk away from him. 'Good bye, Nigel.'

'Rachel…' Nigel realized that he was holding out his hand, as if he wanted to stop her. But she'd already vanished.

He sighed and slapped his empty hand against his forehead, so hard that his sunglasses fell off his nose. While he ducked and picked them up from the floor, he wondered how he could've been so stupid.

I even shouted to her… Why did I do that? She did nothing wrong… She only tried to help me… Being the only one, actually; my team did help me to get rid of my worries, but what they did was avoiding my problems… En that really won't manage to solve them, like she said.

'I'm sorry.' He could barely hear himself. For a moment he considered to follow her and apologize to her while she did hear it, but he realized that wouldn't help his situation.

We're both tired… I'll talk to her tomorrow, he decided, and then, after standing at the same spot for minutes, he finally came loose from the floor and continued his giant steps – he wanted to get away from here as soon as possible.

Nigel blankly stared in front of him; he was lost in thought even more than before she came to him. Because now, he had two persons to think about… and to doubt about what he would do about them.

Hours seemed to have passed when he heard a sound behind him again, and he sighed. 'Rachel, I…'

At that moment he felt how two hands touched his back and pressed him to the floor. Before he could take the chance to get up, or to even say something, the same hands pressed his arms against the wooden planks and a heavier weight went to sit on his back, preventing him from being able to get up.

'Quiet,' a too familiar voice hissed in his ear. 'I won't hurt you.'

Nigel tried to struggle himself free, but, as he expected, the teenager was much stronger than him. 'What do you want--'

'Ssst!'

He lifted himself and his hands pulled Nigel's wrists, making him get up as well. Without struggling he let him lead him to the nearest room.

As soon as the door got slammed, Nigel looked right into his eyes with crossed arms. 'What do you want from me now, Chad?'

The blonde teenager looked back at him as straight while he pulled the key through the lock. 'I wanna talk to you.'

'You too?' Nigel sounded so calm that he barely seemed angry – which surprised Chad.

'What are you talking about?'

'Nothing. What do you want?'

'I just told you.'

'I don't want to talk to you.' This time, Nigel sounded much anger. Maybe because he already said this once – or because he didn't want anything to do with this teen.

'Too bad. You're not leaving until I say so.'

'You're not my boss anymore.'

'But I'm still the best there is.

'I can take you.'

Nigel could feel Chad was thinking the same thing as him: that one moment when he was a bit stronger and had almost defeated Chad. Almost…

'I don't make the same mistake twice.'

'Your whole life is full of mistakes.'

To Nigel's astonishment the expression on Chad's face changed to sympathetic instead of angry. 'You're right,' he whispered, 'that's why I'm here.'

'What's to talk about? I hate you, you hate me – we hate each other, hallelujah. There, are we done now?'

Chad rolled his eyes while a clearly annoyed sigh pressed through his lips. 'Don't be so retarded.'

'What?' Nigel raised his hands in the air. 'It's true, isn't it?'

'That you hate me, maybe.' Calmly Chad walked over to Nigel – who didn't take step.

'Since you're a teenager, you have done nothing but lying to me and trying to get rid of me – if you know how to call this anything else but hate, you tell me,' Nigel said sharply.

Chad harshly looked at him. 'You know, don't you? I was undercover.'

'Am I supposed to believe that?'

'Actually, yes.'

'As I was saying, you haven't done anything else but lying to me, Chad,' Nigel growled while getting more and more angry. 'I can't trust you, and I don't want to.'

'I understand that,' Chad replied, as angry. 'And you don't have to; I just want you to listen to me.'

'Why should I?'

'Because I won't give you a choice if you even try to leave.' Chad's voice sounded threatening, the way Nigel knew him.

He sighed and went to sit on a case – the room was full of them – while he put his hand half underneath his chin, half underneath his cheek. 'Go ahead.

Chad took his example, except that he didn't support his head with his hand. He took a deep breath and started to talk. 'I'm sorry.'

Nigel was completely stunned. He felt his eyes grow large and his mouth opened so widely that he had to pull away his hand. 'What are you saying?'

Chad clenched his fists. Apparently, he didn't like to admit this. 'I'm sorry.'

Nigel tried to keep himself under control, but this confession stunned him so much that his body was nearly too weak to stay where it was sitting. He grabbed the edge of the case with both hands and kept his eyes focussed on the teenager. 'Why are you saying this?'

'Because it's true.' Chad looked at his hands, which were clumsily tangled up in each other on his lap.

Nigel didn't know him this way – he needed to get used to this for a moment. 'Why should I believe you?' He sounded too surprised to snarl.

Chad, on the contrary, didn't. He lifted his head to look at the boy. 'Would you cut that out?'

'Fine. Even if it was true, why are you sorry then?'

'Why do you think?'

Nigel pretended to think for a moment and then falsely looked at him. 'Ah yes, I'd be sorry if I was a big jerk too.'

Chad stood up so fast that the case he'd been sitting on almost fell. He ignored the staggering against his legs and pointed a large finger at Nigel's nose – so close he nearly touched it. 'Shut your mouth!'

Nigel slapped away the hand from his face. 'I'm not taking orders from you anymore,' he said calmly.

'You wanna fight?' Chad growled, as hostile as always.

'Actually, I do, but since that won't help a thing, tell me your story and then let me go home.'

Nigel knew that normally, he would've accepted Chad's challenge, but he could feel he was so tired and frustrated that this would get him out of balance enough to not even have a chance against the teenager. Aside from that, he didn't even feel like it.

The calm tone in his voice managed to calm Chad down as well, and a moment later he was sitting on his case again. 'You really hate me, don't you?'

'You realized that just now?'

'Listen, Nigel…'

'Numbuh 1 to you.'

Chad didn't care about this and repeated: 'Listen, Nigel. It's not what you think.'

'It's not?'

'It's not. I didn't betray you.'

'Yes, you did.'

'You know I was undercover, don't you?'

'I'm not talking about that.'

Chad sighed again, but this time, he didn't sound annoyed at all. 'You're taking this personally, aren't you?'

'Why else do you think I'm blaming you so damn much?'

'Well, I--'

'How could you do this?'

To Chad's astonishment, this rhetoric question sounded much louder than expected. He looked up and saw Nigel stand right in front his nose; his case did fall over. His eyes were full of fire.

'How could you do this?' he repeated, even louder. 'I thought I was your friend!'

'You were.'

'That's a lie! I thought I was special to you, but you didn't give a thing about me! About anyone at all!' Nigel's finger took the example of Chad's.

'That's not--'

'You're not just a teenager or a traitor, Chad! You're heartless! Heart-less!' Nigel was shouting now. The fire in his eyes continued to rage.

Now he'd had it. Chad stood up, which made Nigel forced to lift his head to keep looking at him. 'Now you listen to me very carefully, little worm!' he shouted back. 'You're wrong, you hear me? Wrong! Very wrong! What you're saying is not true!'

'Then explain to me, damn it, before I kick your butt!' Nigel felt so furious that he forgot all about his tiredness. But his frustration was even bigger.

'You want explanation? Fine!' Chad pressed his hands to Nigel's shoulders and roughly pushed him against the wall. 'I just told you that I'm sorry! And I don't hate you! And I'm not heartless at all!' he yelled angrily.

'You let everybody down, Chad! Everybody! Even me!' Nigel yelled back.

'I had no choice and you know it! I did it for everyone's own good! If I hadn't left you, Cree would've blown up the Moonbase!'

'We could've saved ourselves! You didn't have to sacrifice yourself as if you're the brave hero in need! You could've just told us what's going on!'

'It was too late for that! Don't you get it?' Now Chad was shouting too. 'You couldn't have done anything if I told you! She would've destroyed you either way! The only way to stop her was to distract her from the Moonbase!'

'Liar!' Nigel furiously yelled, even though Chad's explanation sounded more than logical.

'I'm not a liar! I'm your friend!'

'You're nothing of mine! I don't want anything to do with you – filthy teenager!'

'Don't you dare speak to me so ungratefully! I saved you all!'

'And letting us down was more important than our friendship!'

'Think about it! If I'd told you only, you would've tried to stop her, if need be with your team! Nothing could've stopped her, except me! And I did!'

'That's not true!'

'I know you, Nigel Uno! You're horribly stubborn! I know you would've tried, no matter what I'd said!'

Now Nigel knew nothing to say for a moment. He thought about the words that came out of Chad's mouth and realized he was right. I would've tried… Everything he just said… is true…

This realization made it impossible to shout to his rival again. Chad was right: he wasn't lying. He never lied… He saved us all.

'But… why did you never tell me after you betra-- saved us?' He hated the weakness that controlled his voice.

When Chad replied, he sounded as calm as Nigel, but unfortunately, twice as strong. 'I never had time for myself. When the teens weren't close upon my heels, you Kids Next Door were.'

Nigel folded his arms over each other. 'That sounds too weak for a good excuse.'

'Really, Nigel, I would've told you.'

'Yeah, right.'

'Believe me.'

Nigel was surprised by the sincerity in Chad's voice, but even more by the soft hand that suddenly touched his cheek. The other one let go of his shoulder, making him able to move freely again.

Chad slowly stroked over Nigel's cheek and then pulled back his hand. 'I didn't forget about our friendship. And I don't want to either. And… now that you know the truth, I hope… you forgive me...'

Again, Chad was overwhelmed by the way Chad was acting. He suddenly looked so hurtful… as if he really meant it.

'I… I…'

'I understand this is hard for you,' Chad said as if he could read Nigel's thoughts. 'But I just want to convince you about what I just said. You've always been important for me – I knew from the first moment you were special.'

When he didn't get an answer, he noticed Nigel was about to collapse. 'Eh…'

Chad quickly took Nigel's hands and closed his around them. While he pulled him up again, he softly whispered: 'It's all getting a bit too much for you, isn't it?'

'What do you think?' Nigel brought out even quieter.

Chad snickered underneath his breath before he took Nigel in his arms with a swing. That woke the bald boy up.

'What do you think you're doing?' he asked, shocked.

Chad didn't reply and already let go of him a few seconds later, to put him back on his case. 'I think it's better if I go,' he concluded. 'Now that I explained everything to you…'

Nigel stared at him. 'What…? You're leaving?'

Chad answered his confused frown with a smile. 'Not forever. You'll see me again, promised.'

'But… but…'

The teenager interrupted him when he abruptly moved closer to him and softly pressed his lips against his forehead. He felt Nigel stiffen against his skin and quickly pulled back. 'Thanks for listening to me, Nigel.'

Chad walked to the door, turned the key out of the lock and left the room without looking at him one more time.

Nigel just sat there, stiffened as if he was stuck in a block of ice. While his body slowly melted and relaxed along with it, he tried to process what just happened in the last few minutes as fast as possible.

A few minutes later he was still sitting in the same position, but now his lips were formed in a little smile. His hand slowly moved up and his fingertips touched his forehead.

At that moment he noticed something at the doorway Chad had left open: a shadow that came closer.

Rachel appeared in the doorway with a worried face on her face. 'Nigel, are you okay? I thought I heard you scream…'

He got up and slowly walked over to her. He stopped when he was standing right in front of her nose. He happened to think he gave her a scary impression while he was just standing there and simply smiling at her.

Then, in a split second, he had wrapped his arms around her and she was trapped in his embrace.

She looked at him in shock while he pressed her against his chest, but she didn't pull back. 'Nigel…?'

He sighed happily and whispered into her ear: 'Thanks for being for me, Rachel.'

She had no idea what had gotten him to switch his mood so fast, but it didn't matter to her. She slowly embraced him as well and whispered back: 'You're welcome.'


End file.
